‘We’ve had a great life,’ wife says of 65-year marriage

There were only 30 fellow pupils in Martha Bodkin’s third-grade class more than 75 years ago, and though she may not remember all of them, there was one particular student who stood out from the rest. Hobart Bodkin made such a lasting impression that she wound up becoming his wife.

“I think we actually started first grade together, but I don’t remember him that far back,” said Martha Bodkin, 84. “Yet one of my clearest memories is looking down to the end of our driveway and seeing him on his bicycle, coming to invite me to go see ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’”

The two became good friends but didn’t start dating until they were juniors in high school.

“That’s when we got serious,” said Martha Bodkin. “I know I took a lot of math and science courses I didn’t need just to be with him.”

When the couple graduated in 1945, she headed to a business college in Memphis, and he moved to Atlanta to attend Georgia Tech. Within a year, he was drafted into the Air Force, and the relationship was put on hold. They finally married in 1947 and recently marked their 65th anniversary — a milestone typical of the long relationships in Martha Bodkin’s family.

“There were seven of us in my family, and six of us were married 50 years or more,” she said. “My oldest brother was married 74 years before he died; my sisters were married 65 years. And yet my dad died when he was just 62, so we didn’t have him for that long.”

Hobart Bodkin, 85, who remembers his future wife living out in the country while he was a city boy in Humboldt, Tenn., said there’s no simple formula for staying married for more than six decades.

“It takes dedication,” said the electrical engineer, who retired from Lockheed after 41 years, “and we’ve been lucky to have our health, too.”

“We love each other,” said Martha Bodkin. “When you love someone, you share everything, and that just increases your feelings for each other.”

The couple have spent the majority of their married years in the Sandy Springs house Hobart Bodkin helped design. They moved into the contemporary two-story 50 years ago when the community was still undiscovered woodland north of Atlanta.

“We added a lot of things that were ahead of the time,” said Hobart Bodkin, pointing to the free-standing, hooded fireplace in the den, skylights, niches for books and stereo equipment, and the folding door down the middle of a bedroom to give each child privacy.

The six-time grandparents raised two girls and a boy in the house and spent vacations traveling around the U.S. and the world. In his spare time, Hobart Bodkin was a tour guide at the Fox Theatre in Midtown, and a swatch of old carpet from the building’s last renovation sits at the edge of his armchair.